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Show 228 "And so I am!" She pecked him on the cheek, and with her arms around both of them, led them up the walk to the front porch, where the others were now standing, waiting. A bit awkward, as if they did not know what to do with their hands. "Look who I've got here!" Peggy said, showing them off, hugging them to her-she was one of the few women who made Sharon feel of normal size; she was big-boned, as Sharon's father had been, as tall as Robbie, and under her long arm, Sharon was protected, snug. Yes, a child again. "Well, what do you think?" Peggy said looking up at those on the porch: Billy and Lynn-it must be Lynn, this mature woman, although Sharon would never have recognized her on the street-and a young olive-skinned woman Sharon did not know, a Mexican-American. "Merry Christmas," Lynn said smiling: and Sharon recognized her now, smiling like that, the openness of her face. "Merry Christmas!" Sharon and Robbie replied simultaneously, and everyone laughed, at their speaking at the same time that way. Relieved, that they could all laugh together. But how mature Lynn looked! Before, she had been a girl, she had worn a ponytail, now her hair was cut short-pixie style-she wore mascara, and her body-formerly thin and wiry-held the fullness of womanhood, the shapely figure of an adult woman. "Well, I don't believe it," Robbie said studying Lynn's face. "I just don't believe it." She smiled, self-consciously-and Sharon realized that Robbie had also been searching for the old Lynn, the high school girl, in this new woman. |